In Head Coach Joe Lee's opinion, his Lady Panthers improved in two areas Friday night they had struggled in previously, but an area needing improvement arose at the same time.
"I thought our girls did a whole lot better job rebounding than we've been doing and we didn't hand the ball over a bazillion times," he said.  However, he added, "They just played so physical and we didn't stand up to them.  We let them take us out of the game by being physical."

Lee said that physical play was completely expected entering Friday night's game at Heritage.  "When you come over here, they're going to play you like that."
The Lady Panthers' inability to handle the physical play of the Lady Mountaineers led to their 57-33 loss at Heritage.

The game wasn't the blowout it appeared to be at the end of the contest, however.  Thanks to threes by Shannon Parks and Taylor Robinson, the Lady Panthers held a 6-0 lead to open the game.
Tracey Hardiman then hit a layup to cut the gap to four and neither team scored again for the next three and a half minutes.

The next points were part of five straight points for Heritage that gave the home team a 7-6 advantage.
That didn't last, however, as the Lady Panthers answered with five points of their own - a deep jumper by Robinson and a three by Catherine Hunley - before Hardiman completed a three-point play to make the score 11-10 Lenoir City after one.

Starting with a trey by Lauren Burnett to open the second, the Lady Mountaineers began to slowly hold a lead in the second period.
The Lady Panthers tied the game twice - both on jumpers by Robinson - but a short jumper by Burnett with 5:17 left in the half gave Heritage the lead for good.

The hosts built their lead to four before Parks drained a three with 2:23 left in the half to cut the gap to one at 19-18.
From there, however, the Lady Moutaineers ran off 10 straight points, including a three at the buzzer, to take a 29-18 lead to the half.

"We didn't get them guarded in transition.  They got wide open looks and they made them," Lee said of the run by Heritage at the end of the half.
The streak continued into the third as Katerina Morris hit a jumper to extend the advantage to 13.  However, the Lady Panthers answered back as Tyler Powers, Kristie Brackett and Dawn Radford combined for six straight points, cutting the gap to seven.

The Lady Panthers had a couple more opportunities to cut into the lead after that, though, and weren't able to take advantage.  After a couple of turnovers, the Lady Moutaineers reeled off 11 straight points to lead by 18 early in the fourth and seal the win.
A three by Hunley and a layup by Kara Steil cut into the gap a bit, but Heritage poured it on from there to capture the victory.

Robinson and Parks led the Lady Panthers in scoring with nine points apiece.
Burnett finished the game with 21 points for Heritage, followed by Hardiman's 13.

The Lady Panthers will return to action to attempt to snap their three game losing streak Monday night when they travel to Oliver Springs.  They'll also host Sweetwater Tuesday night.
Both games are set to begin at 6:30 p.m.